Tickets are $40 and only available at the door, which organisers said was to promote its standing as a community event, where patrons were encouraged to come for the whole day.

The festival, which began in 2001, will be held at the Wickham Hotel and in Alden Street nearby, which will be closed off for the day to allow the soundstage and other amenities to be constructed.

Organisers told Fairfax Media that 25 per cent of each ticket would be donated to local LGBT charities.Money raised this year will be distributed between PFLAG, the Queensland AIDS Council, the Open Doors Youth Service and Australian Transgender Support Association Queensland.

Previous headline performers at the Big Gay Day have included Kelly Rowland, Jessica Mauboy, Sneaky Sound System and Crystal Waters.

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Boy George soared to fame in the early 1980s as the frontman for New Wave band Culture Club, whose hits included Karma Chameleon and Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?.

He struggled with heroin addiction through the 1980s, and was sentenced to community service in New York in 2006 after being found with cocaine.